Whether you’re 20 or 80, there’s a workout that can help you look great. “Every man I train uses some variation of it,” says Alwyn Cosgrove, fitness coach and author or The New Rules of Lifting. “And it’s yours for free.”
The biggest difference between this programme and the one you’re doing now is balance. “Not stand-on-one-leg-and-curl balance,” says Alwyn, “but the well-rounded-approach-to-training kind of balance.”
What’s that? You already hit the weight room and work the treadmill on training day? That’s still incomplete, not to mention inefficient.
For starters, you need to stop thinking about going to the gym to “lift” or “do cardio.” Instead, the perfect workout is actually a combination of six different yet equally important component parts.
Don’t worry: This plan is easy to use, and we’ve carefully organised your gym time minute by minute, so you won’t train longer than you do now. You’ll just train more effectively and appropriately for your goal: A bigger, stronger, leaner body that works as great as it looks.
FIRE UP YOUR MUSCLES
The strategy: Put your body in motion in ways that will recruit more muscle fibres in your workout, leading to bigger gains in the end. The investment: 5 minutes
The drill: Junk your traditional warmup. If this were just about getting warm, you could sit in a hot tub. Instead, do calisthenics. They not only hot-wire nerve pathways that connect your brain to your muscles, but also help you move through full ranges of motion before adding weight. If the workout is the show, this is your rehearsal. See “Kickstart Your Workout,” below.
TARGET WEAK SPOTS
The strategy: Troubleshoot problem areas to eliminate weak links and reduce injury risk.
The investment: 4 minutes
The drill: Do any of your joints or muscles hurt? If you answer “a little” or “only when I...” see a physical therapist. And train your glutes – your butt muscles – and your scapular muscles, which include the rhomboids, trapezius, serratus anterior, and pectoralis minor. You don’t need to be able to pinpoint them on a dangling skeleton. Just remember that weakness in these areas signals “Danger: Work Ahead” for hips, knees, and shoulders. Use the exercises in “Injury-Proof Your Body,” below, to ward off trouble now. For years to come, your body will thank you every time you get out of bed.
TRAIN YOUR CORE
The strategy: Sculpt a stable, injury-resistant core. Like a baseball team, a healthy body needs to be strongest right up the middle. Plus, women think a tight midsection is hot.
The investment: 8 minutes
The drill: The core – your abs, hips, and lower back – is the most important area of your body when it comes to injury prevention and overall performance. For great results, train it early in your workout, while you still have the energy and focus to put forth your best effort.
BUILD YOUR BIGGEST MUSCLES
The strategy: Lift more weight in less time to supersize the muscles you want to make bigger.
The investment: 30 minutes
The drill: Weight training is the most critical part of a muscle-building, strength-boosting workout. Streamline your routine with the alternating-set system. Do one exercise, rest one minute, and then do another exercise. Alternate between moves until you’ve completed all your sets for each, then move to a new pair. This strategy allows you to fit 15 to 20 sets in 30 minutes. And it provides sufficient stimulus for muscle growth, provided that 90 percent of those exercises are squats, deadlifts, dips, chinups, rows, and presses.
ACCELERATE FAT LOSS
The strategy: Squeeze in a fat-burning cardio session to reveal rock-hard muscle.
The investment: 4 minutes
The drill: You’re no doubt familiar with interval training, in which you run hard, rest, and then repeat. That burns fat, for sure. But here’s another option. Perform squats, chinups, or pushups for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat, alternating for four minutes. This technique boosts your metabolism and your strength. What’s more, Japanese researchers found that it provides the same cardiovascular benefits as a 30-minute bike ride.
PREPARE FOR TOMORROW
The strategy: Reduce postworkout soreness as a means of maximising your next training session.
The investment: 9 minutes
The drill: Spend a few minutes stretching and improving the quality of your fascia, the tissue that covers your muscle fibres. Injury, overexertion, or extended inactivity can cause fascia to knot up with adhesions. But when you use a foam roll to apply pressure to tender spots, the knots untangle and blood fl ows through those tissues more freely. For more details, check out “Reclaim Your Flexibility.”
The following routines show how to put your new workout strategies into action. As you become more comfortable with the movements, feel free to substitute exercises of your own.
KICKSTART YOUR WORKOUT
Perform these exercises at the beginning of your routine. They prepare your shoulders, back, hips, knees, and ankles to perform at a high level.
WARRIOR LUNGE
Stand with your feet together, then move your left foot forward about 30 cm and your right foot back about the same distance. Raise your arms straight overhead. Keeping your head and chest up, bend both knees to lower your body. Shift your weight forward until the front of your right thigh feels stretched and your right knee is an inch or two off the floor. Hold for three to five seconds, then return to the starting position. Do three to five repetitions on each side.
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| A | B |
SUMO SQUAT TO STAND
Stand with your feet spread wide and angled out. With your knees flexed, bend at the waist and wrap your fingers under your big toes. Keeping your arms straight, drop your hips until they’re near your ankles, and lift your chest and chin. Holding your toes, straighten your legs as much as you can without losing the natural arch in your spine. (In other words, if your back rounds, you’ve gone too far.) Move at a slow pace. Do one or two sets of 12 to 15 reps.
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| A | B |
INJURY-PROOF YOUR BODY
Perform one or two sets of eight to 10 repetitions of the following exercises.
GLUTE BRIDGE
Lie with your knees bent, with a rolled towel between them. Pull your toes towards your shins. Squeeze your glutes and raise your body. Lower your hips to the floor, but don’t touch it.
| A | B |
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LATERAL TUBE WALK
Slip exercise tubing around your ankles and move it above your knees. Stand with your knees slightly bent and place your hands on your hips. Sidestep to your right, then to your left.
| A | B |
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SWISS-BALL L
Lie on a Swiss ball as shown below, with your chest off the ball. Bend your elbows 90 degrees as you raise them to the level of your shoulders, so that your arms create a pair of L’s. Next, rotate your forearms upward 90 degrees. Retrace the pattern to the start.
| A | B | C |
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Assume the same starting position as for the Swiss-ball L. Glide your shoulder blades back and down, and lift your arms up and to the sides at 45-degree angles till you form a Y. Return to the starting position.
| A | B |
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Use the same starting position as for the Y. Pull your shoulder blades in towards your spine and extend your arms straight to the sides to create a T with your torso. Then reverse the move back to the starting position.
| A | B |
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RECLAIM YOUR FLEXIBILITY
Stretch any muscles you trained in your workout, and stretch your hip flexors and chest every day.
KNEELING HIP-FLEXOR STRETCH
Place one foot on a bench behind you and your other foot flat on the floor. Lower yourself until your back knee touches the fl oor. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.
LYING CHEST STRETCH
Lie face-up on a foam roll with your head supported, your arms bent 90 degrees, and your upper arms parallel to the floor. Your palms should face the ceiling. Hold for 30 seconds.
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